Oddsfish! eBook

“And a pretty load on any man’s conscience!”
cried the virtuous Mr. Chiffinch. “And
so all this nest of assassins—­”

“Sir; I did not say that. I said—­”

“That is enough; we want no comments and glosses,
but the bare truth. Well, Keeling, if this tale
be true, you have saved your own life—­that
is, if your fellow murderers do not get at you again.
You have been in trouble before, I hear, too.”

“Sir; it was on the matter of the Lord Mayor—­”

“I know that well enough. Well, sir; so
this is the tale you will tell to-morrow to Mr. Secretary.”

“Yes, sir, if I can remember it all.”

“You will remember it, I’ll warrant.
Well, sir; I think I have no more questions for the
present. Sir, have you any questions to ask this
man?”

I shook my head. I was near sick at the torture
the man was in.

“Well, sir; you may go,” said the page.
“And I would recommend you and your brother
to lie very private to-night. There must be no
more evasion.”

* * * *
*

When he was gone, Mr. Chiffinch turned to me.

“Well?” he said. “What do you
think?”

“Oh! I think he speaks the truth, in the
main,” I said wearily. “Shall I be
needed any more; or when may I leave town?”

“You must wait, Mr. Mallock, until we have laid
hands on them.”

* * * *
*

It was not until the middle of July that I was able
to leave. On the eighteenth of June a proclamation
was issued, with the names of some of the conspirators;
and numerous arrests were made. One matter pleased
me a little, and that was that Keeling had been man
enough after all, to warn some of the humbler folk,
who had been led into the affair, of what he had done;
and the most of these got clean away. Then Sheppard
came forward and betrayed three or four who had met
in his house, as I had seen for myself: and West
added many details. A second proclamation containing
the names, and offering rewards for the arrest of Monmouth,
my Lord Grey, Sir Thomas Armstrong and the Reverend
Robert Ferguson, was made after my Lord Russell’s
arrest; but all four of them escaped. My Lords
Howard and Essex were taken on the tenth of July; and
two days later Walcot, Hone and Rouse were convicted.

As soon as my Lord Russell’s trial was begun,
and the certainty that he would be convicted was made
plain by my Lord Howard turning King’s evidence,
I left London with my man James. And before we
were at Dover the news came to us that my Lord Essex,
in despair, had cut his throat in the Tower.
As for myself, I was glad enough to leave; for I was
both sick and weary of intrigue. It would be
of a very different sort in France; and of a kind
that a gentleman may undertake without misgivings:
so, though I was loth to leave the land where Dolly
was, the balance altogether left me refreshed rather
than saddened.